Iran threatens U.N. watchdog with uranium enrichment over Security Council referral

Iran reiterated on Thursday that it would start uranium enrichment and stop allowing U.N. snap inspections of its atomic facilities if its nuclear programme is reported to the U.N. Security Council in November.

Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, said there was no legal basis for reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

The 35-nation governing board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meets in November to discuss Iran and the EU and the United States want it to report Tehran to the Security Council.

"We will immediately lift the suspension of uranium enrichment and will halt implementation of the Additional Protocol," Aghazadeh said, reports Reuters.

Yesterday's decision by the Iranian parliament marks the end of the two-year search for a compromise between Teheran and the IAEA and the exhaustion of both sides' arguments.

Iran called the resolution passed by the IAEA last week “unacceptable.” It demanded that Iran cease all work on enriching uranium and sign additional agreements with the IAEA to expand the authority that agency's experts in Iran.

International observers commented yesterday on the possible consequences of Iran's nuclear blackmailing of the world community. Robert Einhorn, senior adviser in the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former high U.S. State Department official, said that, in spite of the fact that Iran does not yet have an atomic bomb, and the creation of one may take it at least five years, the Iranian nuclear threat at present is immeasurably more serious than that of North Korea, informs Kommersant.

P.T.